GCSE French specification

AQA’s first theme, in three topics: identity and relationships with others, healthy living and lifestyle, and education and work. Like all three themes it sets the context for the texts and tasks; AQA does not expect every theme to be named in every task, and the language itself comes from the vocabulary and grammar lists.

AQA’s second theme, in three topics: free-time activities, customs, festivals and celebrations, and celebrity culture.

AQA’s third theme, in three topics: travel and tourism, including places of interest, media and technology, and the environment and where people live. Listening and reading texts are set in French-speaking countries and communities; in speaking and writing, students answer from their own interests and experience.

Pearson Edexcel sets its contexts as six: My personal world; Lifestyle and wellbeing; My neighbourhood; Media and technology; Studying and my future; Travel and tourism. Like AQA’s themes they frame the texts and tasks rather than add content: every word on the list can be used in any of them, and the reading aloud, the picture task and each writing task take their focus from one.

The verb system from the prescribed grammar list: at Foundation the present (regular -er verbs, the -ir and -re families, avoir, être, aller and faire, reflexive verbs), the perfect with avoir and être and the agreement of the past participle, the imperfect in the singular, the near future with aller, commands with tu and vous, modal verbs and impersonal phrases (il faut, il y a, il fait), with je voudrais as the only conditional. Higher adds the future and the conditional, the imperfect in every person, depuis, venir de, être en train de, the passive in the present and the present participle after en. French has no subjunctive, pluperfect or past historic at either tier. Known for both understanding and use, and assessed through AO3 in every paper but Reading.

The rest of the grammar list: nouns, their gender and plurals, the definite, indefinite and partitive articles (du, de la, des, and de after a negative or a quantity), adjective agreement and position, comparatives, possessive and demonstrative adjectives, object pronouns before the verb, prepositions (à and de, au and du), negatives, questions and the words that link ideas into longer sentences. Higher adds y and en, the plural object pronouns, the relative pronouns que and où, the superlative and ne...plus, ne...que and ne...ni...ni.

A prescribed list of 1,200 words at Foundation and 500 more at Higher, chosen by how often they are used, plus 30 multi-word phrases and 20 cultural and geographical items. A reading text may gloss up to 2% of its words. The specification also lists 35 sound-symbol correspondences (silent final consonants, the nasal vowels in an, on and in, é, è and ê, ç, ou against u, -ill- and -gn-, liaison and the rest) needed to read aloud and to take a dictation.

Section A: questions in English on short and longer recordings (announcements, conversations, bulletins, podcasts), answered in English or non-verbally, each item heard twice (32 marks at Foundation, 40 at Higher). Section B: a dictation of short sentences, each heard three times, at least 20 words at Foundation and 30 at Higher with two words from outside the list, marked for meaning and accurate transcription (8 and 10 marks). 35 minutes at Foundation and 45 at Higher, with 5 minutes’ reading time and 2 minutes’ checking time; Foundation’s 40 marks are scaled to 50. Edexcel sets the same two sections as its Paper 2 (Listening and understanding): 40 marks of comprehension in English, then a 10-mark dictation of six short sentences, each heard three times, the first few with single words to fill in and the rest written out whole (about 20 words at Foundation and 30 at Higher), marked on one scale by the number of words spelt right. 45 minutes at Foundation and 1 hour at Higher, each with 5 minutes’ reading time, 50 marks at both tiers.

A role-play from a card in English, including one question to ask (10 marks); reading aloud a short text, at least 35 words at Foundation and 50 at Higher, then a short unprepared conversation (15 marks); and a photo card with two photos, described and then used to open an unprepared conversation on its theme (25 marks). 7 to 9 minutes at Foundation and 10 to 12 at Higher, after 15 minutes’ supervised preparation. Edexcel’s speaking test is its Paper 1, in a fixed order: reading aloud a short text (35 to 40 words at Foundation, 50 to 55 at Higher) with two short questions after it (12 marks), a transactional role-play on five prompts with one question to ask at Foundation and two at Higher (10 marks), and a picture task: one of two pictures described, two questions on it, then a conversation on the thematic context the student chose two weeks before (28 marks). The same 7 to 9 and 10 to 12 minutes, after 15 minutes’ preparation.

Section A: questions in English on texts of every kind, from notices and adverts to emails, articles and websites, for the overall message, key points, details and opinions, including working out the likely meaning of a single unfamiliar word in context (40 marks). Section B: a translation from French into English, at least 35 words at Foundation and 50 at Higher (10 marks). 45 minutes at Foundation and 1 hour at Higher, 50 marks. Edexcel’s Paper 3 (Reading and understanding) has the same shape, times and marks: 40 marks of comprehension in English, including working out two words from outside the vocabulary list, then a 10-mark translation into English, five sentences at Foundation and one passage at Higher.

Foundation (1 hour 10 minutes): five sentences about a photo, about 50 words on five bullet points, five short grammar tasks, a translation into French of at least 35 words, and about 90 words on three bullet points from a choice of two. Higher (1 hour 15 minutes): a translation into French of at least 50 words, the same 90-word task, and about 150 words on two bullet points from a choice of two. 50 marks at each tier. Edexcel’s Paper 4 is longer (1 hour 15 minutes at Foundation, 1 hour 20 at Higher) and built differently. Foundation: four sentences about a photo (8 marks), 40 to 50 words in a formal context (14) and 80 to 90 in an informal one (18), each a choice of two, and five sentences translated into French (10). Higher: the same 80 to 90-word informal task (18), 130 to 150 words in a formal context (22), both a choice of two, and a short paragraph translated into French (10). There are no separate grammar tasks.